Compositions and methods for emulsifying a pefluorocarbon with an oxygen-carrying surfactant

Abstract

A physiologically acceptable perfluorocarbon emulsion composition that includes perfluorodecalin and an oxygen-carrying fluorinated surfactant forming a stable emulsion in a continuous aqueous phase. The oxygen-carrying fluorinated surfactant may be fractionated to increase its physiological compatibility, and may further include a fatty acid radical perfluorinated to increase its oxygen-carrying capacity. The perfluorocarbon emulsion composition of the present invention thus exhibits improved stability and efficiency, broadening its application and effectiveness as an artificial oxygen carrier.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] This invention relates to perfluorocarbon emulsions and more particularly relates to compositions and methods for emulsifying a perfluorocarbon with an oxygen-carrying surfactant to produce a physiologically acceptable intravascular oxygen carrier. [0003] 2. Description of the Related Art [0004] The demand for blood is ever-increasing in America as it is worldwide, with baby boomers approaching retirement age and foreign conflict resulting in unavoidable casualties. Accident and burn victims, cancer patients, and other patients undergoing surgeries and medical treatments also require immense amounts of blood and blood products on a daily basis. In fact, one in twenty Americans will require a blood transfusion at some point in their lives. [0005] The incredible and unceasing demand for blood, combined with serious shortages in the donor blood supply, has made achievement of a physiologically acceptable synthetic bloo...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0015] In one embodiment, the fatty acid radical substituted onto the soy lecithin may include a carbon chain having between about twelve and about twenty-two carbon atoms. In some embodiments, the fatty acid radical may be perfluorinated to increase its oxygen-carrying capacity.

Problems solved by technology

The demand for blood is ever-increasing in America as it is worldwide, with baby boomers approaching retirement age and foreign conflict resulting in unavoidable casualties.

Accident and burn victims, cancer patients, and other patients undergoing surgeries and medical treatments also require immense amounts of blood and blood products on a daily basis.

While the military was not immediately successful in developing a clinically acceptable hemoglobin-based blood substitute, initial work by Dr.

Fluosol DA, however, was problematic in that the emulsion of perfluorocarbons in an aqueous phase was inherently unstable, both thermodynamically and kinetically.

This instability required storage of the emulsion in a frozen state, and further required a laborious and time-consuming process of blending the emulsion with other ancillary solutions immediately before use.

Despite these improvements, manufacturing and stabilizing synthetic oxygen carriers remain great technological challenges as only droplets of around 0.16 μm or less in diameter are well-tolerated in physiological systems.

Further, perfluorocarbon-based emulsions are immiscible, and therefore inherently unstable, in water.

Known emulsification agents such as egg yolk phospholipids and lecithin also include extraneous components that threaten the stability of a final product useful as an intravenous oxygen carrier.